An arborist is one that is involved in the care of trees. This often involves trimming and pruning branches that are high off the ground as well as removing trees once they are dead or damaged. In addition, such trees are often in landscaped areas such that it is preferable not to allow a severed branch to drop to the ground because the falling severed portion may cause indentions in a well manicured lawn or may fall on something fragile below, such as shrubbery or anything that would be damaged by the falling weight of the severed branch. To avoid these consequences, an arborist may use ropes to lower a severed portion of the tree to the ground in a controlled manner.
Many devices are known that facilitate the lowering of a severed portion of a tree to the ground. Such devices, for example, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,239,188; 5,971,363; 5,484,253; and Des. 330,671. Except for the tree pulley of U.S. Pat. No. Des. 330,671, all of the disclosed devices provide for and/or require the wrapping of a lowering rope multiple times around a portion of the device for sufficient frictional support of the severed portion of the tree for controlled lowering of thereof, especially when the severed portion of the tree is heavy. This is unfortunate, because it is believed that every complete wrapping of the lowering line around a portion of the device creates a twist in the line, which decreases the useful life of the line and limits the number of times the line may be used to lower portions of trees to the ground. Furthermore, the wrapping of the lowering line creates a tendency in the lowering line to twist and to knot, which creates a hazard during lowering operations. A twisting or knotting of the lowering line may jam a device through which the lowering line passes. An unobservant operator quickly passing the lowering line through his hands also may be unexpectedly thrown off balance or injured when a knot suddenly is encountered.
Accordingly, a need exists for a device for lowering a severed portion of a tree to the ground that does not require the creation of twists in the lowering line for controlled lowering of the severed portion of the tree.